Who is your favorite obscure musician who sings/plays for a well-known band?
John Hawken, who played for Renaissance. However, you’ve probably never heard him, since he was the original incarnation of the group, not the Annie Halsam one (it is the same group, but none of the original personnel appeared on “Ashes are Burning”).
Um, Ross Valory?
Ian Stewart, founding member and pianist for the Rolling Stones. Was kicked out (but still played and toured and was tour manager) by manager for being too ugly.
Billy Powell, arguably, pretty well-known, but most people know Lynyrd Skynyrd (or however it’s spelled) but not him.
Billy Preston, the Black Beatle, probably not that well-known by name to most people.
Richard Tee, session pianist extraordinaire, sides with Paul Simon, lots of stuff.
Nicky Hopkins, who also played piano with the Stones (on “We Love You,” “Sympathy for the Devil” “Gimme Shelter,” “Tumbling Dice,” “Fool to Cry,” “Waiting on a Friend”), as well as with The Kinks (all their mid-60s records) , The Who (“The Song Is Over,” “Getting In Tune”), the single version of The Beatles’ “Revolution,” Donovans’ “Barabajagal,” John Lennon’s Imagine record, Jefferson Airplane, Jeff Beck, and many others. A great piano player.
Ray Cooper, a session percussionist who shows up everywhere.
Jerry Douglas, an incredibly talented dobro player, is a member of Alison Krauss & Union Station. He has been a session musician on over 1600 albums. He can play jazz, classical, bluegrass, rock, reggae, and with Strength In Numbers a combination of all of the above.
I’ve heard of him because he was in the Strawbs… didn’t realize he was in that original Renaissance lineup.
Do the Funk Brothers count? Probably couldn’t name one of them, but almost everybody has heard their music. They were the Motown session musicians and have played on the following #1 hits (according to Wikipedia):
"Please Mr Postman" The Marvelettes
"Fingertips Pt. 2" Stevie Wonder
"My Guy" Mary Wells
"Where Did Our Love Go" The Supremes
"Baby Love" The Supremes
"Come See About Me" The Supremes
"My Girl" The Temptations
"Stop! In the Name of Love" The Supremes
"Back in My Arms Again" The Supremes
"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" The Four Tops
"I Hear a Symphony" The Supremes
"You Can't Hurry Love" The Supremes
"Reach Out I'll Be There" The Four Tops
"You Keep Me Hangin' On" The Supremes
"The Happening" The Supremes
"Love Child" Diana Ross and the Supremes
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" Marvin Gaye
"I Can't Get Next to You" The Temptations
"Someday We'll Be Together" Diana Ross and the Supremes
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Diana Ross
"The Tears of a Clown" Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
"Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" The Temptations
"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" The Temptations
"Touch Me in the Morning" Diana Ross
"Let's Get It On" Marvin Gaye
"Midnight Train to Georgia" Gladys Night and the Pips
"Keep on Truckin' (Part 1)" Eddie Kendricks
"Just a Little Misunderstanding" The Contours
"Shop Around" The Miracles
"Shotgun" Junior Walker & the All Stars
"How Sweet it Is(To Be Loved by You)" Marvin Gaye
"The One Who Really Loves You" Mary Wells
"The Way you Do the Things you Do" The Temptations
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
"(I'm a) Road Runner" Junior Walker & the All Stars
"Ain't too Proud to Beg" The Temptations
"I Wish it would Rain" The Temptations
"(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" Martha & the Vandellas
"Hitch Hike" Marvin Gaye
"What's so Good about Goodbye" The Miracles
"I Was Made to Love Her" Stevie Wonder
"It's the Same Old Song" Four Tops
"You've Really Got a Hold on Me" The Miracles
"Standing in the Shadows of Love" Four Tops
"If I Were your Woman" Gladys Knight and the Pips
"Going to a Go-Go" The Miracles
"Heaven Must Have Sent You" Bonnie Pointer
"Dancing in the Street" Martha & The Vandellas
"Mercy Mercy Me" Marvin Gaye
"Cloud Nine" The Temptations
"What's Goin' On" Marvin Gaye
"Do You Love Me" The Contours
"Get Ready" The Temptations
"Function at the Junction" B.T. Express
"My World Is Empty Without You" The Supremes
"The Tracks of My Tears" The Miracles
"Can I Get a Witness" Marvin Gaye
"Nowhere To Run" Martha & the Vandellas
"Here Comes The Judge" Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham
"Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" Stevie Wonder
"Beachwood 4-5789" The Marvelettes
"Bernadette" The Four Tops
"Two Lovers" Mary Wells
"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" Jimmy Ruffin
"My Cherie Amour" Stevie Wonder
"I Second That Emotion" Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
"Losing You" Brenda Lee
"First I Look at the Purse" The Contours
"Ooo Baby Baby" The Miracles
"I'll Be Doggone" Marvin Gaye
"Pride and Joy" Stevie Ray Vaughan
"Ball of Confusion(That's What the World is Today)" The Temptations
"It Takes Two" Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock
"This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" The Isley Brothers
"Uptight" Stevie Wonder
"Devil With a Blue Dress On" Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels
"Jimmy Mack" Martha & the Vandellas
"Since I Lost My Baby" The Temptations
"War" Edwin Starr
"Stubborn Kind Of Fellow" Marvin Gaye
"Don't Mess With Bill" The Marvelettes
"You Beat Me to the Punch" Mary Wells
"Shake Me, Wake Me" The Four Tops
"Mickey's Monkey" The Miracles
"Ain't That Peculiar" Marvin Gaye
"Shoo-be-doo-be-doo-da-day" Stevie Wonder
Johnny Marr has played with a few “smaller” bands (e.g., Modest Mouse), but the Cribs are pretty obscure
If the Funk Brothers count, then so does Hal Blaine.
Defining “obscure” and “well-known” is a bit subjective here, but here’s some of mine:
Otis Spann, Muddy Waters’ original piano player
Jerry Miller, guitarist for Moby Grape
Al “Blind Owl” Wilson, original guitarist for Canned Heat
Clarence White, guitarist for one incarnation of the Byrds
Nice call on Richard Tee, Jaledin…I’m sure you’re familiar with Stuff, but hopefully some others will be enlightened…
Jerry Douglas, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Ian Stewart - all favorites of mine - can throw Chuck Leavell in there too.
Chuck Leavell and Nicky Hopkins I wavered on including.
I play a few Stuff tunes – those records (few, but great) have some balls-out Tee stuff. “Do You Want Some Of This” is a favorite.
And the rest of The Wrecking Crew.
[QUOTE=Mixolydian;14522848[Otis Spann, Muddy Waters’ original piano player[/QUOTE]
And Chuck Berry’s piano player [url=Johnnie Johnson (musician) - Wikipedia]Johnnie Johnson](Otis Spann - Wikipedia), too, for that matter.
If Chuck Leavell is obscure enough, then I’ll throw in a vote for him, too.
Well, the following guys all played for years with bands that were/are VERY well known and sold a LOT of records. All were very good musicians, but none of them is EVER the first person you think of when the group is mentioned,and most could walk around in public without attracting any notice (well, the first guy on the list hasn’t walked much lately!)
(It’s not a coincidence that several bass players are on this list!)
John Entwhistle (The Who)
Roger Glover (Deep Purple)
Don Felder (Eagles)
Nick Mason (Pink Floyd)
John MacVie (Fleetwood Mac)
John Paul Jones (he used to say he was the one guy in Led Zeppelin who could go to every tourist site in every city the band played in without being noticed or bothered)
Brad Whitford (Aerosmith)
John Deacon (Queen)
Al Jardine (Beach Boys)
Michael Anthony (Van Halen)
Tony Banks (Genesis)
Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd (AC/DC)
Larry Mullen Jr. (U2)
Ray Thomas (Moody Blues)
John Illsley (Dire Straits)
Scott McCaughey of The Young Fresh Fellows/The Minus 5 has played with R.E.M. for the last 10 years or so, as well as with Robyn Hitchcock’s band (along with Peter Buck).
I like Rabbit Bundrick (keyboards) and Jodi Linscott (percussionist), they’ve played with The Who and many other bands.
Well, clearly no one liked my reference to Journey’s bassist ;). I was trying to make the point that there were guys in huge bands that had no notoriety, e.g., the guys in Chicago not named Cetera and maybe Kath, etc…
As for the OP, I would go with guitarist Ry Cooder:
- Duane Allman picked up slide after seeing Ry do it out in LA in the mid 60’s
- Keith Richards started to explore open tunings because Ry was part of the entourage of musicians involved with recording their CD’s like Beggars Banquet. Their first song featuring Open G tuning, Honky Tonk Woman, has a bit of a kerfuffle surrounding it because some folks have asserted that Ry came up with the main riff which Keith turned into the song. I want to say Ry has asserted this in the past, but can’t recall…
- A pioneer of digital recording back in the 80’s
- Played the Ralph Macchio parts in that guitar movie he was in with Steve Vai.
- Put together the Buena Vista Social Club